Gauze sponges are used by dentists and dental surgeons to control the moisture in the patient's mouth during dental treatment. Gauze sponges can be used for almost all procedures from routine cleaning to complex surgery. These absorbent sponges are shaped to fit the patient's cheeks and absorb saliva and blood to keep the workplace dry.
Gauze sponges can also be used for extra-oral dressings, preparing and cleaning wounds and surgical sites, as well as cleaning and disinfecting instruments and wiping surfaces.
While strength, absorbency and versatility can save time, improve efficiency and minimise the number of sponges you use, choosing medical sponges that are soft, lint-free and have low adhesion to the wound is essential for patient comfort and healing.
Medical Sponge
Nonwoven sponges are treated by the hydroentanglement method. During the entanglement of the fibres, the fibres are mechanically bonded together to provide fabric strength. Fabrics with fibre webs entangled using high pressure water jets do not require an adhesive. A forming belt supports the fibre web as it passes under the water jet. The shape of the belt creates perforations, which are a key part of the process that gives the fabric its open web shape.
The high energy of the water removes any dust or short fibres, which explains the lint-free nature of the hydroentangled nonwoven.
Woven fabrics are woven on a loom that joins two sets of yarns by weaving one set of yarns between another set of yarns. In this process, the two sets of yarns are perpendicular to each other. One group, called the warp, extends along the length of the fabric. The weaving machine lifts some warp yarns upwards and some downwards to form a bobbin. The weft or woof yarns, when placed perpendicular to the warp yarns in the bobbin, intertwine with the warp yarns when the bobbin is closed.
In gauze, there are only a few warp and weft yarns per inch of fabric. This dynamic creates openings or spaces between the yarns in the fabric. Finally, the woven gauze is purified to remove natural oils, waxes and colours and to make the fabric absorbent and white.
The type of fibres used provides another point of difference between woven and non-woven medical and dental sponges. While woven sponges use only cotton, non-woven varieties derived from the hydroentanglement process may consist entirely of cotton or a mixture of polyester and rayon.
While both cotton and rayon will biodegrade, polyester will not. Cotton fibres, especially the woven varieties, are better suited to handle greater moisture, as they become stronger the wetter they are. On the other hand, polyester is a non-absorbent fibre; therefore, its strength does not change when wet. Polyester is often used in combination with rayon because the two fibres complement each other - polyester is strong and rayon is absorbent.
One of the benefits of non-woven sponges is that they are lint-free, whereas woven fabrics can be lint-free and may contain fibres. Non-woven fabrics have more space between the fibres; these spaces act as reservoirs for storing liquids and therefore have a higher absorption capacity. Because the fibres in woven fabrics are closely spun into yarns, there are fewer spaces between the fibres to hold liquids.
Naturally, the more layers of fabric in a sponge (also known as a cord fabric layer), the higher the absorption capacity.
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